If your a small business you NEED to be on a social networking site and you NEED to learn how to use it effectively. In the article Why Twitter Is a Big Win for Small Businesses , written by Erica Swallow, she interviews three small business owners that have successfully used Twitter and have gotten positive results from it. She asked each a series of nine questions and even used examples from their own Twitter accounts. The article was a great idea and could be of reference to other small business owners.
One business owner named Lev Ekster, stated when asked, "What's the top reason your business uses Twitter?" that “It all just boils down to having a face and a voice to the company, where the customer feels that you’re reachable. With a bigger company, you don’t know who the owner is, you don’t know how to reach them, you feel like beyond the suggestion box in the store, there’s nothing else you can do. But [with social media], you get an instant response.”
I personally think that's a great response because it is true how many times have you been some where and had bad/good service or just wanted to make a comment about it and all they had was a place like a suggestion box. I always wondered if they even looked at what people put on a suggestion card, because you never get a response back like you would on Twitter. Also, other customers may never see what you put into a suggestion box but they would see what you tweeted about. Twitter makes me as a consumer feel more comfortable with communicating with a small business. It makes you feel like you have a voice and someone is actually listening to you.
I think this article could also apply to our project with Shenanigans, because it talks about how some businesses aren't using Twitter effectively so it isn't successful. I think we could use the responses of these business owners when thinking about how Shenanigans need to approach Twitter, if that is something we would even consider using.
The small business owners make good points in their responses, including how you shouldn't use an outsource to update your Twitter because they aren't they to know what is going on. They also recommend to take lots of pictures of everything, from the chef making cupcake to a new dress that just arrived in your store. Then you can monitor how many people actually look at your pictures and they would give you an idea at how many active followers you have.
This article should be read by all small business owners who are looking into using Twitter!
I'm glad you posted this I find it highly informative and very useful for my purposes. I agree that all small business owners should be using social media and this article is especially informative on Twitter.
ReplyDeleteI think this is very informative too. I also just wrote my blog on small businesses using social media. This is awesome for small businesses to gain an edge. People will listen to the small business owners and their socail media because they know it's from a direct solid source. Everyone pulls for the underdog. It's like the tortoise and the hare. Everyone pulls for the turtle because although the turtle doesn't have all the resources to win, the turtle has the motivation. Social media is doing just that for small businesses, giving them the tools to succeed.
ReplyDeleteGreat Post! I completely agree with you. It is very important for businesses to keep their micro blogging posts internal, such as tweets. This allows the business to keep their followers up to date rather than having to go through a middleman to connect with the followers. I also agree with your thoughts on posting pictures and tracking views. This is an easy way to see who you are connecting with!
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